A little piece of Normalcy
by Dramione27
Summary: “Harry could be dead by the end of the year, Ron and I have never been close…I hate to say it Malfoy,” she sniffed, “But your hatred is the most constant thing in my life.” Short oneshot. Rated for course language.


"You act all tough but it's a shell. Inside you're a sad, uncertain and probably impotent little boy!" she screamed out across the courtyard, "And what's more you have serious intimacy issues because 'Daddy didn't love you enough'. Well let me tell you something Malfoy!" He looked at her with an expression of deepest resentment, "Everyone has problems and we don't need you walking around like a tough guy telling us we're lower than you on some fucked up little social ladder in your sexually malfunctioning, insignificant and mostly inbred 'pure' society!" She panted and took another deep breath before she raised her hand to her mouth appalled at the utmost cruelness it had uttered. Her face was completely red and the heat emanating from her could be felt in the grounds but nonetheless she looked completely at a loss, "I-I…"

"Don't even try to apologise you filthy little trollop!" he spat at her vehemently.

"But I didn't mean," she looked at her feet ashamed,

"Don't tell me you didn't mean it, you meant every single word!" She looked him back in the eye and suddenly the fire had found more kindling,

"You're right! I did mean every single little word." He simply sneered at her, "I wish I had never met you, you decadent, depraved profligate, you're a sexually frustrated, hormonal teenager and you're utterly gutless."

"Gutless?"

"Yes, you're gutless so you _chose_ the Dark Side, you _chose_ the easy way out!" a loud clap was heard as the back of his hand made contact with her face. She flinched insuppressibly but did not bring her hand up or let a tear escape,

"You wait until your first kill mudblood, and then see how brave you are." She bit her tongue to stop from crying or throwing another insult at him, the crowd watched on in silent terror, some of them seriously doubting they would survive the day, some of them flexing their muscles involuntarily in a primal show of alpha-male-ism. He gave one last glowering look to the crowd before he turned and left without so much as a word.

"Are you okay Hermione?"

"You alright?"

"I'm so going to pound that little fucker!"

"He is so dead,"

"Don't worry Hermione; we'll get him for you."

"Just shut up all of you." The tens upon tens of voices died after this, "I deserved what I got, and I'm fine."

* * *

But as the weeks progressed and her snarkiest, most demeaning comments went undefended she began to worry. Would Malfoy ever fight with her again? Had she finally taken it too far? It was one day after class when she was talking to her friends and walking past the Slytherin table when she decided to bait him;

"Yea, I bet the whole lot of them have some kind of venereal disease, it must be genetic, part of the inbreeding." She giggled with her friends but she could only pay attention to Malfoy's reaction and there he was sitting, eating, looking positively stoic and quite untouchable. She 'accidentally' spilled her pumpkin juice on his lap as she passed by but got no reaction…he was absolutely aloof.

* * *

No reaction for three weeks, she'd lasted three long weeks before breaking down. She walked through the courtyard and stopped in front of him, he payed no attention. She pushed the papers out of his hands and onto the floor; the whole courtyard went positively quiet. She slapped him and looked at him determinedly, "Dramatic much Granger?"

"Call me mudblood damn it!" she shrieked, the student body looked quite taken-aback. "Stop being so god damned civil."

"I beg your pardon Hermione?" The students shared a collective gasp before she slapped him again.

"You arse!" She exclaimed, "Insult me, hate me, give me cruel witticisms, make blatantly obvious observations, call me a mudblood, and please, please stop being civil." He disregarded her almost completely and the rest of the courtyard went back to its gossiping. "No!" She screamed, "You don't get to do this to me!" He looked at her strangely before walking off, she dropped to her knees, "Please," she pleaded, "call me a name, make a wisecrack about my family, call Ron poor or Harry stupid. Do something normal!" tears streamed down her face as she knelt in the middle of the courtyard with everyone watching, everyone except Malfoy. He kept walking, "You twitchy little ferret-fucker, come back here." He ignored her again, "You said you were brave, prove it! Come back and face me like a man would!" her face contorted in a miserable expression that told every spectator that she was on her last tiny whim. He turned dramatically and she whimpered, she actually whimpered.

"Why do you need me to hate you?" he asked, a fair question, the students were on the edge of their seats for an answer.

"Because I need normalcy, I want normalcy. Harry could be dead by the end of the year, Ron and I have never been close…I hate to say it Malfoy," she sniffed, "But your hatred is the most constant thing in my life." She panted slightly as she caught her breath, "And I don't want it to change." He nodded slowly before replacing his standoffish demeanour with a superior sneering one,

"Trying to get closer to the ground you belong to or are you just conceding to marry Weasel…Merlin knows you'll need some practice begging for money." She covered her mouth as relief washed over her and yet more tears streamed down her face,

"No, I was just looking for something more worthy of my insults, you degenerate." He nodded at her properly as she mouthed the words 'thankyou'.


End file.
